


Safety Nets

by MabelMine



Category: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - All Media Types
Genre: Broadway, Broadway Charcters, Gen, Movie Settings maybe, Russian Veruca and he Russian dad are great, These kids have problems, West End Plot, let them live
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 02:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13847952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MabelMine/pseuds/MabelMine
Summary: Willy swears to the chocolatiering gods he didn't plan this.Augustus has control issues.Violet had a brand to keep up.Veruca's scared of how far he can go.Mike fixes more than he breaks, but does the news ever focus on that?Charlie's just glad he made friends.





	Safety Nets

**Author's Note:**

> I love these children, but mostly just the first four winners cause Charlie's the golden boy ain't he?  
> The characters are from the Broadway production because I loooove them but I hate the plot so I'm using the West End plot!  
> And also movie settings if you squint? Cause I haven't seen either play so I dunno what everything looks like  
> I don't speak Russian? Wish I did, but until I do or feel bothered to look up google translate, I'm spelling Verucas name and her dads nickname the way it sounds  
> Have fun and pls leave a like or comment if you enjoyed it!

Despite the way it looks, he didn't plan this. Any of this. Fate just seemed to have some rather malicious plans and Willy has a feeling that some of the more devious Oompa Loompas have had their hands in all of this.  
They haven't had a chance to preform in a long time, and he will have to have some talks with the little buggers. 

 

They're all enraptured by this wonderland, truly and properly fascinated. Augustus finds the smell sugary sweet, as is expected with literally everything made out of candy.  
The man said to help yourself.  
And sometimes he just can't. help. himself. It's a problem that he is all too aware of, when he stuffs himself full at dinner, and then his brain craves more until he's nearly sick.  
But it's fine. It's all fine, he's just healthy, he's just got a big appetite, and now he can feel his common sense slipping a little bit. It's all a bit blurry, his eyes gazed over in his brains twisted rendition of a sugar high. 

Veruca is licking a lollipop and perched on a candy rock when she sees Augustus hunched over the bank of the river. He's almost cute, she muses, if she had the sense of a grandmother who knitted all day and pinched babies cheeks. She looks to the sugarcane trees, sticks the lollipop into her mouth and savors the cherry flavor before she looks back to him.  
There's something wrong. The nagging feeling in the back of her brain won't go away and she knows she can't ignore it. She'd felt it when Caroline tripped over a prop candy cane and almost fell off the stage in The Nutcracker, saved by Veruca's quick tug on her skirt.  
"Papachka." She reached a hand to her left, knowing her daddy will be there in seconds.  
"Veruchka?"  
She grips his jacket in barely trembling fingers, never looking away from the German boy.  
"He's going to fall." She says, almost a whisper, but she knows her Papachka will hear her and know what she means. 

And just as she predicted, there's a commotion. Mr. Wonka gives a shout and Augustus rears back in surprise, then starts to topple forwards. Her Papa's  
coat has been dropped and in seconds  
Oleg Salt has yanked the boy back by the scruff of his remarkably well knitted sweater with out a drop of chocolate on his Versace suit.  
As Augustus lands flat on his ass, sprawled out over a field of crushed mint grass, Veruca drops the sucker, holding her fathers coat to her chest, rushing to the bank of the river. Papchka takes his coat while she drops to her knees. "Are you alright?" She asks the boy, perched delicately over him. He just barely manages a nod, chocolate coated mouth open in surprise. Veruca stands and throws her arms around her Papa's waist, staring as Augustus's mother scoops him into her arms, babbling in German and weeping like a baby. 

-

If you though Violet was that conceited in real life, you needed a serious reality check. Everyone was fake on the internet and she was no exception.  
She had followers to impress and an image to uphold after all.  
She only grabs that stupid gum because she knows her Daddy wants her to keep up her act, to win this Fran's prize in a major win for her brand.  
The best way to win is to grab what you need and take it.  
She lists the courses as they come, just as bubbly as her videos and tweets say she is.  
And then she hits it.  
Wonka says it's pudding, because he's weird, but it's pie and she can't. stop. chewing.  
Violet tries goddamn it, but her jaws won't wrench open and she feels like something is forcing its way down her throats so fast she's choking. Her hands flutter to her chest, not even focusing on the shriek Veruca gives, the gasps of Charlie and Gus, the yells of her father and Wonka. And suddenly.. 

She's coughing, hunched over, hands on knees as she spits that godforsaken gum out of her aching jaws.  
She looks up.  
There's her Daddy, looking shocked, holding a phone she knows is recording. There's Veruca, clutching her fathers arm and looking frightened, Charlie whose eyes are rounder than plates, Gus who looks horrified.  
She turns around, to see whose hand is on her back, who smacked her so hard it knocked that blue wad of chewing gum out her mouth.  
There's Mike, eyes wide under his SnapBack and floppy hair, mouth agape. His mouth starts to move, that high pitched voice starting up fast and only moving faster in explanation.  
"You... were choking. Turning blue. I swear to god, you were turning blue, and you looked like you were having a panic attack and-"  
She cuts him off with a hug, choking back a tiny sob and the rooms explodes into explanations and apologies and even more hugs and Violet thinks she'll be taking a break from her internet life and an even longer break from gum. 

-

He just- gives it to her.  
It doesn't mean that Veruca doesn't work for things. She's spent years of dedication to be where she is in her ballet school, and her Papachka is just so proud he...  
Lavished her with gifts. 

She enjoys them and sometimes she just wants to see how far he'll take it.  
His eagerness scares her sometimes.  
But it's become habit to see something outrageous and screech her demands. She sees the squirrels and her mouth is already open even though squirrels are kind of weird and scary when you look straight at them. Shes cut off by Charlie, who, in his tiny voice and ragged clothes tugs his grandfathers sleeve. "Oh, Grandpa Joe, that one looks just like Dot!"  
She spins on her heel and asks, accent rolling off the tongue-  
"What. Is a Dot?"  
"It's a squirrel that used to live by our house! She had this white dot on her forehead, so we called her Dot, because you know, and we would feed her some bread crumbs and we haven't see her around lately, I think it's because she had babies!"  
He rambles to her as her father asks boring business questions to the silly man in a top hat. On and on he goes but he's not talking about this squirrel anymore, but about the time the roof almost fell in, about the time he had his very first chocolate bar, about his fathers lucky star.  
Suddenly Veruca doesn't want a squirrel anymore. She moves to her Papas side and presses against him, taking in the smell of his coat. He squeezes her tight as Wonka goes on about some sort of sorting system. 

-

Micheal isn't as bad as he seems.  
Honest.  
He just- doesn't give a shit?  
Like, his mom was an alcoholic long before his first Nintendo and his dad was gone before that and he just wants a distraction sometimes goddamn it.  
It just so happens that he needs a distraction almost all the time and the best way is to plunge yourself into character creation and game controllers. Then he starts to notice bugs and glitches, a critical eye to any problem. Then, he wants to learn how to fix it and when he does he also learns just exactly how to break it. He fixes more than he hacks, but no body ever pays  
attention to that. 

They're in a large room with a TV and giant buttons and all Mike can think about is -  
I can break this.  
Not that he wants to, but he can't help but notice how the set up could be improved, made more functional, made more efficient, made more safe. If this were a game, it would only take a few clicks and combos for him to utterly destroy this and leave the room full of destruction. 

"Hey, Wonka!" He yells from a cross the room. Everyone turns from whatever the quack is talking about, except the quack in question.  
"Yo, old man!" He shouts, still standing next to a control panel. He is pointedly ignoring the Oompa Loompa at his shoulder who is sinisterly grinning with sharp teeth.  
These people are really tryin his patience today. 

When Wonka finally looks to him, eyebrow quirked and lips pursed, he points to the panel, then to the platform where things are  
some-fucking-how  
sent to the television screen.  
"Don't you ever have accidents? This place is a law suit waiting to happen. What happens when one of you're creepy ass workers," He is very aware of the Oompa's sharp teeths next to his hand and he moves it, "Trips over something and gets beamed into your whack ass cable network?" 

Wonka eyebrow drops and after the day they've all had it's really really starts to sink in that, he should have a lot more safety nets. After all, this boy hacked into his system- he must have some idea how to fix it. 

-

The grand prize, Wonka tells them, is the factory itself.  
This takes them all my surprise because, shit, that's a lot of responsibility for one kid. 

But they've bonded. And the parents and Wonka can all see, it's gonna take a lot more than a promise of chocolate or gum or cutesy rodents or television to make these kids break, let alone split up. 

They aren't all as bad as the interviews make them out to be, Wonka decides. After all, he ought to know, there is such a thing as bad press. 

Now they stand defiantly as their parents argue. Charlie holds Verucas left hand, Gus holds her right, Violet holds Gus's hand and Mike holds her opposite palm. Charlie jitters with anxious energy. Veruca stands tall in a stance her father recognizes will end with a fit if they even try to suggest she moves. Violet grits her teeth, hip cocked. Mike slouches, sneering and adjusting his hat.  
"How can you think this is a good idea Wonka?"  
"They're children!"  
"My leibchen almost drowned!"  
"They have no idea of financial upkeep, I have many factories and it is large job-" 

"Hey!" 

It's Charlie who yells, surprising them all. Everyone turns to look and he sheepishly glances at-  
His friends. 

"If... you want a kid... We could just.. all? Do it?"  
He asks, turning to Mr. Wonka.  
When he doesn't answer right away, all the children chime in.  
"It was just an idea!"  
"My Papchka will help with financial and management services!"  
"I could help you with candy testing!"  
"I can do online promotions! Manage your social media presence!"  
"Maybe I can fix your jacked up system, old man." 

Willy Wonka stares at a line of children who look... genuinely excited at the idea, even though his factory is obviously dangerous.  
Far more dangerous that he thought.  
Maybe they can help it though, since they know first hand what it is. 

Willy turns to the parents, leaning on his cane with a small smirk.  
"Whaddya say folks?" 

Joe's nodding so fast he looks like he'll get whiplash if he isn't careful.  
Ethel looks like she wants a drink.  
Eugene is practically vibrating with the idea of his daughter managing the social media of a chocolate millionaire.  
Ms. Gloop is clapping her hands and babbling happily in German.  
Oleg simply crosses his arms and nods, because what Veruchka wants, he gives. 

Willy turns around and grins.  
"Well. I guess you've all won."


End file.
